Mizzou Arena

Mizzou Arena is an indoor arena located on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Home to the school's men's and women's basketball teams, the facility opened in November 2004 and replaced the Hearnes Center as the school's flagship indoor sports facility. The arena also serves as the Columbia-Jefferson City market's venue for well-known 'arena' acts such as Rascal Flatts, Luke Bryan and the Eagles. The arched-roof building seats 15,061, and is located just south of Hearnes and Memorial Stadium. The arena is host to Missouri State High School Activities Association championships for basketball and wrestling. The arena was briefly known as Paige Sports Arena.[7]

Mizzou Arena
Former namesPaige Sports Arena (October–November 2004; three regular season games[1])
LocationOne Champions Drive
Columbia, Missouri 65211
Coordinates38.93237°N 92.33303°W / 38.93237; -92.33303
OwnerUniversity of Missouri
OperatorUniversity of Missouri
Capacity15,061 (2004–present)
SurfaceHardwood
Construction
Broke groundSeptember 21, 2002 (2002-09-21)
OpenedOctober 13, 2004 (2004-10-13)[2]
Construction cost$75 million
($102 million in 2019 dollars[3])
ArchitectCDFM2
HOK Sport (now Populous)
Structural engineerWalter P Moore[4]
Services engineerM-E Engineers, Inc.[5]
General contractorJ.E. Dunn Construction Group[6]
Tenants
Missouri Tigers
(Men's & Women's Basketball)

About the arena
Mizzou Arena from the Northwest side in 2014

Mizzou Arena also includes offices for the Men's and Women's basketball programs, the Athletic Administration and Mizzou Arena's Building Operations. For the basketball programs the arena also offers locker rooms, a 24-hour practice gym,[8] weight and training facilities including a hydrotherapy pool, video classrooms with audio and video editing capabilities, and an academic study center.

Missouri basketball coach from 1967 to 1999, Norm Stewart, is the namesake of the arena's playing court.[9]

History

After protracted negotiations,[10] a third of the venue's $75 million cost was donated by Walmart heiress Nancy Walton Laurie and her husband Bill. It was initially named Paige Sports Arena after their daughter (who attended the University of Southern California rather than Mizzou, to much alumni and student criticism regarding the name), but the Lauries gave up their naming rights due to a term paper scandal involving that daughter shortly after the arena's dedication.[11][12][13][14] The name of the arena's playing surface, Norm Stewart Court (in honor of Mizzou's longtime men's coach), was carried over from the basketball team's previous home at the Hearnes Center with the arena's opening in 2004.[9]

Attendance at men's basketball games has dropped somewhat, commensurate with the move of Mizzou in 2012 from the Big 12 Conference to the Southeastern Conference due to weak overall conference strength in the sport. With one conference game left to play in 2014, attendance was on track to be at its lowest since the 2007–08 season.[15][16]

In September 2014, the university announced renovations to the arena including new scoreboard infrastructure, improvements to the facility's entryway and upgrades to the team's locker room coming from a $1.5 million donation.[17]

In June 2017 a former Mizzou athletics staffer was arrested on two felony charges after he allegedly drove a Volkswagen Passat through Mizzou Arena and onto Norm Stewart Court early that morning, causing an estimated $100,000 in damages.[18]

gollark: Also, you would pay several tens of thousands of $ a year.
gollark: Not two letter ones.
gollark: Two letter ones are country codes.
gollark: I don't *think* so.
gollark: In some cases you would have to contort your speech weirdly to make it work.

See also

References
  1. "2004-05 Missouri Tigers Schedule and Results". Sports Reference. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  2. "Mizzou Athletics to Hold Series of Open Houses at Paige Sports Arena". Missouri Athletics. October 8, 2004. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
  3. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  4. "Mizzou Arena". Walter P Moore. Archived from the original on March 11, 2006. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  5. "College Arenas". M-E Engineers, Inc. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  6. Broughton, David (November 22, 2004). "Show Me Money: Missouri Arena Delivers Revenue". SportsBusiness Journal. Retrieved November 12, 2013.
  7. Jenna Isaacson (24 November 2004). "College removes name of Wal-Mart heiress on arena". USA Today. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  8. Dellenger, Ross (July 24, 2012). "$200 Million Questions: MU Officials Weigh Options for Facilities". Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved July 24, 2014. There are other ideas floating about, too. A second basketball practice gym is a possibility. Mizzou Arena has just one practice court.
  9. "New Arena Floor Named for Norm Stewart". University of Missouri Department of Athletics. March 7, 2004. Retrieved February 11, 2014.
  10. Sherbo, Marisa (16 September 1997). "Arena plans move forward without Lauries" donation". The Maneater. Retrieved 14 June 2015. MU administrators say they still are committed to building a new basketball arena, even though they will have to do it without the $10 million donation from Bill and Nancy Laurie.
  11. "Lauries Transfer Arena Naming Rights Back to Missouri U." St. Louis Business Journal. November 23, 2004. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
  12. Simon, Stephanie (November 25, 2004). "Benefactors Find Scandal Gave New Arena a Bad Name". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
  13. "Univ. of Missouri Board Approves New Arena Name". St. Louis Business Journal. November 26, 2004. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
  14. Martin, Sheena (December 10, 2004). "Paige Sports Arena Signs Removed from eBay". The Maneater. University of Missouri–Columbia. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
  15. Joens, Philip (7 March 2014). "Mizzou Arena attendance down sharply for men's basketball in 2014". KBIA Sports. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  16. Morrison, David (1 March 2014). "Missouri basketball attendance takes a drastic dip". Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved 29 June 2014. Missouri is not alone. The Tigers are one of seven SEC teams who have seen their attendance figures fall overall this season and eight who have seen a drop in conference play.
  17. Walentik, Steve (September 19, 2014). "Mizzou Arena Getting Upgrades After 10 Years". Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  18. Matter, Dave (26 June 2017). "MU grad drives onto court at Mizzou Arena, causes $100K in damage". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
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